Reef Dreaming

Justin Evans, Shifting Sands, acrylic on canvas, 152 x 76.5, 2017.

'Reef Dreaming' is Evans’ first solo exhibition. It is a beautifully-wrought celebration of Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef, and clarion call to protect this extraordinary national treasure – in what may well be its darkest hour. As climate change threatens on one front and the Adani Mine another, 'Reef Dreaming' is a salient reminder of exactly what’s at stake.

Justin Evans is a proud Birri Gubba man originally from Mackay, Queensland. He has lived in Victoria for the past 15 years and nowadays calls Parkdale home. In 'Reef Dreaming' he brings to vivid life the ‘dreaming’ of his homeland in Queensland – a place dear to his heart. The exhibition portrays his deep-rooted connection to the stories of saltwater and the reef, allowing its visitors a rare insight into Indigenous stories as old as the reef itself.

None of us know enough about the stories of our first inhabitants, and are poorer for it. Science has just caught up with the story of the reef’s formation, for example, and the fact that it happened in as little as a single human lifetime. This story is part of Indigenous folklore, told to every generation since their ancient forebears witnessed this cataclysmic event.